The White House press briefing descended into a fiery exchange about the Statue of Liberty and immigration on Wednesday.

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The senior White House aide Stephen Miller got into a heated argument with Jim Acosta, a CNN anchor, after briefing reporters on the administration’s support for an immigration bill.

Watched by the press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Miller was appearing at the lectern to discuss the RAISE Act, a bill which would halve legal immigration into the US. The White House aide took a question from Acosta, a frequent briefing room sparing partner of the former press secretary, Sean Spicer, and the briefing descended into a ferocious debate.

Acosta talks with fellow reporters after the daily press briefing at the White House in Washington Wednesday. Photograph: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters

Acosta asked Miller if the proposal would violate the spirit of the poem New Colossus, inscribed at the base the Statue of Liberty, which includes the famous line: “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” Miller responded by noting first that “the poem that you were referring to was added later and was not part of the original Statue of Liberty”, and then going on to combatively quiz Acosta on what level of immigration would violate his “Statue of Liberty law of the land”.

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The White House aide went on to bash Acosta for his “cosmopolitan bias” and attacked him for asking about what the bill would do to the racial composition of immigrants to the US by saying: “That is one of the most outrageous, insulting, ignorant and foolish things said you’ve ever said.”

Miller later apologized to Acosta before leaving the lectern, saying “things got heated”, but added that the CNN anchor “made some pretty rough insinuations”.

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